Historically, the British have been averse to funding a standing army, and perhaps that feeling endures today, in the belief that it is possible to raise and train an army to meet any threat in a short time. 

Allan Mallinson contends it takes a decade to generate an army, but a momentary decision to decimate the underpinning culture. 

If the British Way of Warfare has rested for a large part on luck, then the current fad for soothsaying and prophecy about the future of war will have to increasingly rely on it. Plus, the controversial view that stability has more to do with military success than radical change.